Cricket Australia, which earlier allowed Andre Russell to use black bat during the Big Bash League 2016/17 has now withdrawn his request and has debarred him from using the coloured bat.

This decision has been taken after the touch between bat and ball resulted in some black patches on the ball in only seven deliveries that Russell faced.

This forced Cricket Australia to reverse their decision.

As per the rules of the Big Bash League, a player is allowed to use a coloured bat with prior approval from Cricket Australia, which should be of the same colour as that of the team or black.

Giving a clarification over this, Anthony Everard, head of the Big Bash League said, “The Match Officials provided feedback to Cricket Australia that the bat used by Andre left black marks on the match ball. As a result, we have decided to withdraw our approval for Andre to use the bat that was used last night as the colour solution used by the manufacturer was discolouring the ball.

“Should Andre, or any other BBL or WBBL player for that matter, wish to use a bat with a different colouring solution to the one used last night that doesn’t result in the discolouration of the match ball, they will be permitted to do so subject to Cricket Australia being satisfied that the bat won’t compromise the integrity of the game, which we believe discolouring the match ball does.”

Previously, we have seen may players coming up with colourful bats in BBL, be it Aiden Blizzard coming wit an electronic bat or Gayle coming up with a golden bat.